Energy3D

NSF-Funded Free Software

Energy3D is a simulation-based engineering tool for designing green buildings and power stations that harness renewable energy to achieve sustainable development.
Users can quickly sketch up a realistic-looking structure or import one from an existing CAD file (*.dae),
superimpose it on a map image (e.g., Google Maps or lot maps), and then evaluate its energy performance for any given day and location.
Based on computational physics and weather data, Energy3D can rapidly generate time graphs (resembling data loggers) and heat maps (resembling infrared cameras) for in-depth analyses.
At the end of the design, Energy3D allows users to print it out, cut out the pieces, and use them to assemble a physical scale model.
Energy3D has been primarily developed to provide a simulated environment for engineering design (SEED) to support science and engineering education and training from middle schools to graduate schools.
As its simulation results are accurate and its user interfaces are friendly,
it may also be used as an entry-level energy simulation tool for professionals.

Solarize Your World

You have probably heard that harvesting the sunshine on just a small portion of the world would provide enough energy for everyone and thereby solve numerous big problems humanity is facing.
But why hasn't this happen? What would it take to make it happen? The Solarize Your World project represents a new effort to engage the public, in particular today's students who will become tomorrow's engineers,
in this important conversation.
The following map (full screen) shows the worldwide distribution of solar power systems currently available in the Virtual Solar Grid,
ranging from small rooftop photovoltaic solar systems to large utility-scale concentrated solar power plants. You can click a marker for a preview and download the Energy3D model it points to.
Any Energy3D user can easily contribute to the Virtual Solar Grid and, as an international community, we will crowdsource an unprecedentedly fine-grained, time-dependent, and multi-scale
computational model for anyone — believer and skeptic of renewables — to study how much of humanity's energy need can be met by solar power generation on the global scale,
independent of any authority and in the spirit of citizen science.
As a target, the world's electricity consumption in 2016 is a bit more than 20 PWh, or 20,000,000 GWh.
When new solar power systems are added to the Virtual Solar Grid, their total predicted outputs as a percentage of the world consumption is also updated and their contributors will rise in the scoreboard
(if they choose to identify themselves through a name or ID).
Please join us to start a journey to solarize your world and explore the future!

Accurate solar radiation modeling

Solar irradiance heat map visualizes the distribution of solar radiation on surfaces on a daily basis,
which may be useful for natural daylighting and solar potential analyses.
The examples below show the results for the lower Manhattan Island in New York City and the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington DC.

Averaged over 150 U.S. locations, the mean daily insolation predicted by Energy3D is within ±14% of the measured result for a horizontal surface
and ±10% for a south-facing vertical surface, respectively. The following images show the comparison of calculated and measured data for 20 U.S. cities.
The measured data are from
the National Solar Radiation Data Base collected by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Papers

What people're saying about Energy3D...

“This program is amazing and my kids are really engaged and enthusiastic about using it. They can't wait to print and build their models.”

— Darrin McComas, Mountainside Middle School, Mead, WA

“I would like to congratulate you for creating both Energy2D and Energy3D programs. Sorry for repeating known reactions. These are incredible tools.
Moreover they are still [being] developed! I am really impressed. I use both programs during the course named Computing in Civil Engineering given
for BSc and MSc students willing to specialize in Sustainable Building.”

— Prof. R. Robert Gajewski, Head of Division of Computing in Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology

“I am a French STEM teacher and a trainer of technical education teachers in west France. Our teachers loved your software!
We were working on an 'eco-quartier' with the goal to use as much passive solar energy as possible. Each student worked with SketchUp to model his/her house
and then pasted the model on a map. Then we tested different solar orientations. Your software is a really good complementary tool to SketchUp,
though the purposes are not the same.
It is fast, easy to use, and perfect for constructing!!! I will use it instead of SketchUp in our activities.”

— Sébastien Canet, Académie de Nantes

“In gearing up to teach a course called Building Science this semester, I somehow stumbled across
your program Energy2D and Energy3D. I was really impressed by how simple and easy these tools were and I'm definitely going to integrate them into some portion of my lectures.”

The development of this program is funded by the National Science Foundation under grants #0918449, #1304485, #1348530, and #1503196 and by General Motors under grant #34871079.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the materials associated with this program are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation or General Motors.